Misperceptions foreigners have about the US

[Texas Proud]

The world seems to follow American politics as much as US citizenry does. And in the couple of incidences that I personally encountered and recounted earlier, some foreigners acted like they wanted to be able to cast some votes in our election too. Good grief! The typical American does not follow elections in other countries that closely. He could hardly keep up with gubernatorial election in nearby states (unless it is populous and interesting like California, of course ).

It was interesting that I experienced the same when I was in the UK... more than one person said that they wished they could vote for the President because they had more effect on their lives than one would think...

It was also funny that a few people wanted to become the 51st state instead of being part of the EU... that was 12 years ago and it seems like they have a point with the potential EU implosion...

 

[NW-Bound]

OK, let's ask what these newcomers bring to the table. From what I hear, many countries are already accustomed to paying higher taxes than we do. I don't see how one can turn away taxpayers. Come on in!

 

[Koogie]

But why the above is true is palpable. The US is like a cheerleader in a high school. All eyes are on her. Every of her moves is observed, and which easily becomes a topic for gossip, no matter how well she behaves. On the other hand, how can our cheerleader know about what each geek in her classes is up to?

The actual geopolitical truth of it, and people tend to forget this in our politically correct times, is that we are still living in the time of the American Empire. True, it is a social/financial/cultural Empire more than a colonial one but it exists nonetheless. That is why people around the world know far more about the US than the US does about them.

I am sure during the time of the British or Roman Empires the average Kenyan or Gaul knew much more about England or Rome than the average Citizen knew about the farflung colonies.

 

[Midpack]

FIFY, if you believe Ian Bremmer and many others...otherwise I'd agree.

The actual geopolitical truth of it, and people tend to forget this in our politically correct times, is that we are just coming out of 60 years [-]still living in the time[/-] of the American Empire. True, it is a social/financial/cultural Empire more than a colonial one but it existed[-]s[/-] nonetheless. That is why people around the world know far more about the US than the US does about them.

I am sure during the time of the British or Roman Empires the average Kenyan or Gaul knew much more about England or Rome than the average Citizen knew about the farflung colonies.

 

[ChiliPepr]

Let's pick a random citizen of Azerbaijan, one of Peru, and one average American. Though I have not been to the above two countries, I would bet that the Azerbaijan and the Peruvian would know something about America, while the typical American may not be able to say a whole lot about these two countries. The knowledge possessed by the foreigners may be very superficial, but my point is that they know something, while the American may have problems placing these countries on the world map.

Dont forget, the size of Azerbaijanis about the same as Maine, and Peru is about the size of Texas+New Mexico+Arizona... How much would someone in those countries know about one of those four states? Never mind be able to place them on a map.

 

[NW-Bound]

Surely, people are now talking about how the yuan should be valued. Let's see them pick on the Chinese Politburo for a change.

A recent article I saw said that they together have personal fortunes worth several billions $US. That makes the US leaders in the Capitol look like paupers. How did these communist leaders get so rich so quickly?

Yes, let's see how foreigners can get to "cast" their votes there!

 

[NW-Bound]

A better title for the thread would be "Misconceptions Americans have about the USA". In my time living in and visiting various countries I've realized that every country thinks they are the best and special....it's an product of patriotism and nationalism.

Yes. And I have seen that smaller or weaker third-world countries often exhibit excessive pride.

Europeans who visit the US are often surprised to see many Americans have the nation's flag, and display it on occasions. It appears that not too many Europeans have their national flags at home. It is said that they have been through many wars on their homeland, and have learned to avoid conflict whenever possible.

Yet, many international soccer games in Europe ended up in violence, resulting in death of many spectators. In the US, there was occasional violence broken out between fans of football teams too. Stupid tribalism exists everywhere!

Personally, I do not care if the US is a better country. It may be simply that its size means that it gets the benefits of the economy of scale. Its businesses can grow internally in the country to a fairly large size before they start to spread internationally. McDonald, Walmart, Starbucks all grew domestically for a few years before they went abroad. Big does not necessarily mean better, but it helps make money. Life is simply not fair.

Anyway, talk about the American culture, it is not necessarily better than others, but it is what it is. I am used to it, and I personally feel more comfortable here than elsewhere. It's just that simple for me.

 

[haha]

I agree. Also, I think it takes an effort to make friends when one moves to a new community, where often people already have many friends and may not be looking for more.

Here's an example of a misperception that some "foreigners" (those not living there) have about New Orleans:

"New Orleans is without a doubt the most insular community in the world. While New Orleanians might not be overtly hostile and may SEEM friendly on the surface, it is impossible for an outsider to form any real, deep friendships in New Orleans no matter what you do if you didn't grow up there and don't have family there."
​

This is what my friends in Baton Rouge told me when I found out that I would be moving to New Orleans.

When one is moving to another region with its own unique culture and heritage, it is hard to fit in unless one puts some effort into adjusting to (and openly admiring and appreciating and respecting) that culture and heritage and the people that make up that community. Also, from living in many different locations throughout my life, I know that even an introvert doesn't have to act like one when the situation requires a change.

Within 6 months I had real, deep friendships here. It just isn't that hard, folks. It's a learned skill.

I don't suppose that it hurt that you formed a romantic relationship with a native with a large family?

I think there is no doubt that the best way to become integrated with a community is to hook up with a respected and connected member of that community.

Also wrt to the idea that in America relationships are mainly outside of work- good luck with that, as most younger people anyway must spend almost all their time working. And they must be mobile, so settled communities are generally not interested in investing a of time and attention into relationships that experience has taught them tend to be transitory.

wrt to interest based "friends" unless these people have more time on their hands than most Americans do, my experience is that these are easy places to do pickups, hard places to form friendships with same sex or not sexually shopping people. And if disability, or an interest change makes you no longer part of the interst group, often it's over. Even in many churches, when an old person no longer can easily show up for services and events, they are mostly forgotten, even by the ministerial staff-unless of course they are wealthy and thus seen as live sources of legacies.

IMO, the best support system by far is an extended family- but so many of us must move away, or even choose to move away from our birthplaces that source of suport is challenged. Hard to pop over to cheer someone up or bring them home from the hospital when you are 2000 miles away. Not to mention that a casual reading of this board will convince you that often these are the ties that are easily loosed.

So often social things that are very widely recognized in our culture, with many books, articles, interviews, etc-see "Bowling Alone"- will be basically denied by ER group members. I guess that our membership is just the 1%, in all desirable categories.

The US in fine in many ways, but not perfect by any means.


Ha

 

[W2R]

I agree. Also, I think it takes an effort to make friends when one moves to a new community, where often people already have many friends and may not be looking for more.

Here's an example of a misperception that some "foreigners" (those not living there) have about New Orleans:

"New Orleans is without a doubt the most insular community in the world. While New Orleanians might not be overtly hostile and may SEEM friendly on the surface, it is impossible for an outsider to form any real, deep friendships in New Orleans no matter what you do if you didn't grow up there and don't have family there."
​

This is what my friends in Baton Rouge told me when I found out that I would be moving to New Orleans.

When one is moving to another region with its own unique culture and heritage, it is hard to fit in unless one puts some effort into adjusting to (and openly admiring and appreciating and respecting) that culture and heritage and the people that make up that community. Also, from living in many different locations throughout my life, I know that even an introvert doesn't have to act like one when the situation requires a change.

Within 6 months I had real, deep friendships here. It just isn't that hard, folks. It's a learned skill.

I don't suppose that it hurt that you formed a romantic relationship with a native with a large family?

My, you are the skeptic, aren't you. I don't lie in my posts, and I wouldn't have posted something like that had F. actually been my sole entree into gaining friends in New Orleans. When I met him I had lived here for some time, and had plenty of friends.

I think there is no doubt that the best way to become integrated with a community is to hook up with a respected and connected member of that community.

I don't agree. Maybe (being a guy), you are not worried about one night stands and disrespect that can occur when there is an imbalance of power in a relationship. Besides, in my oddball point of view, having ulterior motives like that would be dishonest and using someone. I do not do that sort of thing. BTW F. didn't happen to mention his connections until after we had cemented a firm relationship. We had plenty of other, much more important topics to discuss.

Also wrt to the idea that in America relationships are mainly outside of work- good luck with that, as most younger people anyway must spend almost all their time working. And they must be mobile, so settled communities are generally not interested in investing a of time and attention into relationships that experience has taught them tend to be transitory.

Personally I chose never to mix work with my social life, long work hours or not. It's easier to sort out motivations that way.

 

[nun]

Yet, many international soccer games in Europe ended up in violence, resulting in death of many spectators.

This is a misperception. The only issues at the current Euro 2012 has been with Russian and Polish fans and that's got more to do with the general level of racism and thuggery in those countries than with soccer.

In small and weak countries national pride and hubris can be amusing, but in countries like China, Russia and USA it is often scary.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am not a fan of soccer, actually not of any spectator sport, so do not know about Euro 2012 as I do not follow it. I even stopped watching the Olympic games quite a few games ago.

When writing the above post, I was thinking of an incidence I read quite some years back, when British fans battled Italian fans in a game hosted in another country yet, Holland perhaps.

Yes, like you said, it could be more about racism and thuggery than national hubris, but a bystander might not make the difference.

 

[haha]

My, you are the skeptic, aren't you.

Well, first of all I am not implying a one night stand, but a relationship. Hook-up is very ambiguous term; I should have come up with some other way to exress my thoughts. Obviously a one-night stand is not likely to get you invited to your partners family occasions, or introduced to his-her friends.

Secondly, I am not talking about you or about me, but only about what I have observed over and over, and been told my many people.

Just take an extended trip alone, vs. with a spouse or SO. Many people have obseved that their singleness often makes getting to know others easier. There might be many reasons for this, including that people who travel alone may be more naturally outgoing, otherwise it's very easy to get lonely fast.

Ha

 

[NW-Bound]

Just take an extended trip alone, vs. with a spouse or SO. Many people have obseved that their singleness often makes getting to know others easier...

Uh... I'd better not take that Alaskan RV trip alone. Could be danger.

My wife probably would not let me do it either. Female perception, ya know?

 

[marko]

A friend who worked at our German office came back from EAST Germany right after the wall came down.

Forgetting that I was standing there, she said: "oh, its just like the States: dirty and the roads are all full of potholes and there are telephone poles with wires all over them."

Most of my foreign friends note the telephone poles and all the wires. Not what they see on American TV!

 

[tmm99]

Maybe we should all promise not to believe what movies and tv tell us--I won't believe everyone in Russia is in the Russian mob and everyone in India dances frenetically in dirty streets and everyone in England has a polished accent, and "foreigners" can stop believing the Kardashians are the epitome of American culture.

I give my co-workers/friends (software engineers) from India a hard time about the dancing. (Why don't you guys just sprint out of the cubes and start dancing or something? I will do the singing!) Interesting thing is though, they all do like to dance.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Although I'm the native where I live, most of my friends are from elsewhere and moved here, but Ha, I think you might be wrong about how much time people spend at work, or at least in this part of the world. I do know that I "lose" people when they have kids, but for the most part, the people who share my interests are people who aren't slaves to their jobs.

One of the very best things we ever did to enlarge our circle of friends was get a boat. We have not only found interesting and like-minded people associated with boating, but have made some incredibly strong friendships with people we might never have met otherwise.

Another strong friendship builder for me was the dog rescue work I do--even though many of my friends are folks that live a good distance from me, we still manage to get together and talk dogs when we meet for events and transports.

 

[W2R]

Well, first of all I am not implying a one night stand, but a relationship. Hook-up is very ambiguous term; I should have come up with some other way to exress my thoughts. Obviously a one-night stand is not likely to get you invited to your partners family occasions, or introduced to his-her friends.

I find it mildly amusing that you would assume this is an acceptable way to gain friends. There are MUCH easier ways to do that. Like, being considerate, outgoing, and generally someone that would be a good friend, etc etc etc.

 

[NW-Bound]

... they all do like to dance...

There you go! People always complain about stereotypes, but the truth is that they are rarely baseless, and most often very apt to describe a certain trait of a group of people. The problem is stereotypes have a tendency to become racist or demeaning.

 

[nun]

Most of my foreign friends note the telephone poles and all the wires. Not what they see on American TV!

Yes I noticed that when I first came to the states. The streets all looked so cluttered and untidy. In the UK power, phones cables etc are all under ground. Then the winter came and we had a couple of power outages because of ice.....

 

[Texas Proud]

Dont forget, the size of Azerbaijanis about the same as Maine, and Peru is about the size of Texas+New Mexico+Arizona... How much would someone in those countries know about one of those four states? Never mind be able to place them on a map.

You would actually be surprised how many people in other countries know about Texas... it shocked me....


I would say that the states that people know about are California, New York and Texas... with New York they only think it is the city....

 

[haha]

Uh... I'd better not take that Alaskan RV trip alone. Could be danger.

My wife probably would not let me do it either. Female perception, ya know?

PS. FIFY.

I'd rather that if you are going to quote my post, you'd quote my post rather than your changed version of it. I understand that you are joking, but I'd prefer not under my handle.

Ha

[mod edit--original material in quote restored]

 

[haha]

I find it mildly amusing that you would assume this is an acceptable way to gain friends. There are MUCH easier ways to do that. Like, being considerate, outgoing, and generally someone that would be a good friend, etc etc etc.

please don't misunderstand me, then put me down based on your misunderstanding. You are implying/assuming things that are no part of my post or my meaning. As I said, that someone forms a relationship that turns out to be socially helpful does not imply that they are using anyone. Why do you insist on trying to make this personal? I have eyes to see, and ears to hear. I will stop posting other than on purely concrete forums if this is what I can expect.

Sorry if I stepped on your toes in my origanal post; I meant no disrespect. I still say, it doesn't hurt to have a ready made family. Umpteen western men living in third world countries are testimony to this. They are the ones who aren't semi-drunk midday.

This kind of annoys me.

 

[BigNick]

Yet, many international soccer games in Europe ended up in violence, resulting in death of many spectators.

The past tense is apposite there. I'm trying to remember the last time anyone was killed at a European soccer match. The 1970s (in the UK) and 1980s (in Europe) were quite bad, although it's all relative -- soccer violence tends to get a lot more publicity than other violence.

My favourite "violence" stat is that at no point during the "Troubles" period, from 1969-1997, did the homicide rate per 100,000 population in Northern Ireland exceed the homicide rate in the United States.

 

[kombat]

I have nothing to base this on, but I often wonder if large portions of the world population would be dumbfounded that North Americans urinate in water clean enough to drink. It seems to me that surely that would blow the minds of people in drought-ridden regions of the world. Am I right, or is it pretty much common knowledge that the Western world has vast amounts of clean water?

 

[tmm99]

My formative years were spend in another culture where friends are family and acquaintenances/strangers are friends (the country is just one big mass of friendly and kind people). In this culture I could spend hours talking to a friend about the most mundane details of my life, my innermost feelings, politics or whatever and feel very connected heart to heart as if I am talking to a member of my own family.

I think I understand where you are coming from. I am originally from Japan, and many Asian cultures can be that way especially in rural areas. It's nice that people are very close. But there is a price to pay for that in my opinion. People tend to make your business their business. They expect you to act a certain way.

American people (if I could generalize) are much more individualistic and they respect who you are and your privacy (as long as it doesn't directly affect them.) Some people will share more personal experiences than others, but they do not expect you to do the same. To me, that is the beauty of this country. It's OK to be different here - OK to be any way you want to be. Maybe people cannot get many very close friends here the way they do in some close knit cultures outside of this country , and maybe that's the price we pay to keep our individuality. I certainly find more non-conformists in this country than a country like Japan.